Delaware’s General Assembly continues to build upon its slate of justice reform efforts with new compassionate release legislation.
If signed into law, Senate Bill 10 — also known as the Richard "Mouse" Smith Compassionate Release Bill — would expand the eligibility criteria for those who qualify for compassionate release, a legal mechanism that allows certain incarcerated individuals to seek early release under specific circumstances.
Current Delaware law only allows sentence modification applications for good cause to be filed by the Department of Correction (DOC) and criteria includes rehabilitation, serious medical illness or infirmity and prison overcrowding.
The proposed changes would retain serious medical illness or infirmity, but modify the other factors to include:
- Individuals who are aged 60 or older, who have served at least 15 years of their originally imposed sentence, and who have been “rehabilitated”
- Individuals who have served at least 25 years of their originally imposed sentence and who have been “rehabilitated”
One of the bill's sponsors, House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown (D-New Castle), explains some individuals are still serving sentences under old sentencing laws, and this bill would provide them a second chance under new parameters.
"I know one individual that had actually attempted to rob a bank, and they were high on drugs when they did it, and that was such a long time ago, we did not recognize substance use disorder as an actual illness," Speaker Minor-Brown explained. "So that person is still sitting in prison under old sentencing laws, and they’re actually chronically ill right now, and they have family support, and they deserve an opportunity to actually show that they’ve been rehabilitated and to actually have a second chance in society to be able to spend time with their children and their family and live the rest of their life without being behind bars."
The changes would also allow an incarcerated individual or their legal counsel to apply for their own sentence modification, rather than just DOC, and requires DOC to review applications annually.
Speaker Minor-Brown is a career nurse and has experience working at every prison in the First State, and she's working on companion bills to improve reentry support for previously incarcerated individuals, as well as better legal recognition of post-incarceration syndrome (PICS), a psychiatric disorder that affects individuals who have been incarcerated and then are released back into society.
“While I support compassionate release, part of that compassion piece has to be that we also make sure that we are doing a warm handoff for these individuals as they move into society so that they can be successful.”
Minor-Brown says those bills have been drafted and will be filed "very soon."
Delaware NAACP President and community activist Richard "Mouse" Smith passed away earlier this year, and the bill's sponsors felt it was only right to name this piece of legislation after him.
"Mouse was a was a criminal justice fighter. He was always working on behalf of the individuals who were incarcerated to try to ensure that they received justice. I can’t tell you how many phone calls I received from him at night related to somebody who was incarcerated in a Delaware prison that made me get up out of my bed at night and go to the prison to to check on this person myself with my own eyes," Speaker Minor-Brown said. "Just knowing that he continued that fight, and he unfortunately passed away, it’s important that he’s recognized."
The Richard "Mouse" Smith Compassionate Release Bill was formally introduced by Sen. Majority Leader Bryan Townsend (D-Newark), who also introduced the final leg of his bail reform constitutional amendment this legislative session that would revoke the opportunity for pretrial release in capital murder cases and other high-level felonies.
The bail reform amendment passed unanimously among members present in the Senate in January, and it now awaits a committee hearing in the House.
The compassionate release bill has been assigned to the Senate Corrections and Public Safety Committee.
